Porsche Makes €6.83 Billion on VW Shares, €1 Billion from Selling Cars...

At a time when most automakers are struggling with a sharp downturn, making a €8.586 billion profit (before taxes) in the fiscal year 2007/2008 that ended on July 31 definitely comes to a surprise - especially when we're talking about a company of the size of Porsche. The prior-year figure had been €5.857bn meaning that Porsche's net profit jumped a whopping 46%. But what's even more startling is the fact that the German automaker reported that from the €8.586bn it earned in the 2007/2008 fiscal year, less than €1bn was attributable to operating profits from its car division. So where did the €7.8bn come from?

Well, believe it or not, Porsche made an astonishing €6.83bn from trading in VW shares, and a further €1bn from the rising value of its Volkswagen stake which was 22.3% in July! Porsche currently owns a direct stake in VW of 42%, and controls about 32% more via stock options.

In terms of selling cars, Porsche's turnover was about €7.5bn or €1.4bn less than the firm's overall net profit in the same fiscal year...

Business year, 2007/08, 2006/07

Profit before taxes, EUR 8.569 billion (+ 46 %), EUR 5.857 billion

Profit after taxes, EUR 6.392 billion (+ 51 % ), EUR 4.242 billion

Turnover, EUR 7.466 billion (+ 1.3 %), EUR 7.368 billion

Sales, 98,652 vehicles (+ 1.2 %), 97,515 vehicles